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Yes. Curtis Blaydes has a speech disorder.
Curtis Blaydes is known as one of the hardest-working fighters in the sport of MMA.
That said, outside his professional fighting career, Blaydes fights a whole another fight altogether. He brilliantly manages his fight against his medical condition – a speech disorder/impediment.
Despite the speech disorder, Curtis Blaydes has never backed down from fulfilling his media obligations that come with being a professional MMA fighter for the UFC.
Curtis Blaydes recently clarified that his fighting career hasn’t caused his speech disorder
Speaking to the New York Post, Curtis Blaydes opened up on a few notable topics. Amongst these topics was the speech disorder that ‘Razor’ suffers from. Addressing his speech disorder, Curtis Blaydes stated:
“I’ve had my speech impediment since… all my life…All I can remember, I [have] had a speech impediment. So it doesn’t have anything to do with getting hit in the head or CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) or anything like that.”
Intriguingly, Curtis Blaydes had previously planned on pursuing a career as a history teacher. However, he refrained from doing that, insinuating that his speech disorder and young students being mean played a role in his decision:
“But then I realized kids are mean…I can’t be in a classroom with them for eight hours.”
“There [are] so many people who just think, if you cannot speak…medically correct, that you’re not intelligent…contrary to popular belief, a lot of us who have speech impediments are really, really intelligent.”
Curtis Blaydes suggested that the misconception which certain people have – whereby they feel individuals with speech disorders are unintelligent – “annoys” him. Blaydes reiterated that having a speech disorder and being intelligent aren’t mutually exclusive. A person suffering from a speech disorder medical condition can still be incredibly intelligent.
Curtis Blaydes aims to win the UFC heavyweight title
Reigning UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic will defend his title in a rematch against Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 on March 27th, 2021. Miocic won their first fight via unanimous decision however Ngannou is still considered to be the most dangerous fighter in the UFC heavyweight division.
The MMA community is divided as to which fighter will emerge victorious in the UFC 260 heavyweight title bout between Miocic and Ngannou. The winner of this fight will put their UFC heavyweight title on the line against MMA legend Jon Jones. The former longtime UFC light heavyweight champion, Jones, will be making his heavyweight debut later this year.
Moreover, if Curtis Blaydes manages to defeat Derrick Lewis at tonight’s UFC Vegas 19 event (February 20th, 2021), Blaydes could be next in line to face the winner of the Miocic/Ngannou vs. Jones matchup. In simple terms, Curtis Blaydes could very well find himself in a UFC heavyweight title fight come 2022.
